Content area
Full Text
Murphy, Edward F. Semper Fi-Vietnam: From Da Nat to the DMZ: Marine Cogs Campaigns, 19691975. Novato, Calif: Presidio, 1997. 356pp. $24.95
Consisting primarily of densely packed battle narratives reaching down to platoon level and even to the exploits of heroic individuals, Edward Murphy's one-volume history of the U.S. Marines in the Vietnam War illustrates vividly what a difficult war it was-especially for the Marines. During the early years in particular, as Murphy portrays them, it was a particularly dreary experience. Forced by Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) commander General William C. Westmoreland into search-and-destroy operations for which they were ill attuned, the Marines experienced long periods of frustrating inability to find the enemy or bring him to battle, periods punctuated by sudden crises in which pinned-down units took heavy casualties.
The Marines' long ordeal at Khe Sanh is also attributed to Westmoreland's insistence that Khe Sanh be occupied, overriding Lieutenant General Lewis Walt's objection that it had no military value. Murphy describes case after case of search-and-destroy operations experiencing significant problems, but he concludes that they were a...